Doctors Without Borders/Medicins Sans Frontieres:
As pharmaceutical company Novartis proceeded with its legal challenge against the Indian government in a court hearing in Chennai, India, today, nearly a quarter of a million people from over 150 countries expressed their concern about the negative impact the company's actions could have on access to medicines in developing countries. The Indian Network for People with HIV/AIDS (INP+), the People's Health Movement, the Centre for Trade and Development (Centad), together with the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), called on the company again today to immediately cease its legal action in India.
Novartis is pursuing legal action against India for developing and selling a generic version of its drug, Gleevic/Glivec -- a cancer treating drug that's also used in treating HIV/AIDS. In 2006, India rejected a patent for the drug, allowing indian companies to manufacture it. Prior to 2005, India didn't patent drugs, leaving drugs developed before then in the public domain -- for lack of a better term. An indian court found that Gleevic was simply a form of matinib mesylate and wasn't patentable. Under indian law, a medication is only patentable if it's really a new drug, not an improvements on older drugs. The purpose of the law is to spur innovation. Novartis claims that India's patent law violates the rules of the World Trade Organization.
You ever notice how WTO rules never actually seem to help anyone other than corporations?...
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Tags: news | politics | health | medicine | India | Africa | Asia | international | free trade | AIDS | WTO | NAFTA
